Volume II

Issue : 9: April 29, 2004

• The Use of Video Surveillance by Employer Violates PIPEDA
• U.S. Court Upholds Prison Term in Online Pharmacy Case
• U.S. Appeals Court Finds Registered Trade Mark Generic for Purposes of ACPA
• FCC VoIP Ruling Could Cost AT&T Billions
• Canadian Phone Companies Protest CRTC's VoIP Opinion
• Sex.com Dispute Finally Settles
• German Open Source Proponent Obtains Order Enforcing GNU General Public License
• U.S. Court of Appeals Overturns Decision on Disgruntled Homebuyer's Website
• Court Upholds Enforceability of Clickwrap Agreement that Was Accepted Under Protest
• Criminal Charges Filed for First Time under U.S. Spam Legislation

Home > Volume II > Issue 9: April 29, 2004 > German Open Source Proponent Obtains Order Enforcing GNU General Public License

German Open Source Proponent Obtains Order Enforcing GNU General Public License

The netfilter/iptables project, a German-based free software project developing and distributing network security software in association with the GNU General Public Licence (GPL), has obtained a preliminary injunction in Germany against Sitecom GmbH to enforce compliance with the GPL.

The netfilter/iptables project alleged Sitecom offered a wireless access router product based on software developed by the netfilter/iptables project and licensed under the GPL proposed by the Free Software Foundation. Sitecom did not make the source code for the product available as required by the open source provisions of the GPL and as demanded by the netfilter/iptables project. The GPL license was also not included as required.

The case underlines the obligations associated with using "free software" acquired under the GPL. "Free" refers to certain freedoms held dear by the open source community and does not imply that the software is free of any obligations or available free of cost. Harald Welte, Chairman of the netfilter/iptables Core Team stated:

We are not in any way opposing the commercial use of free and open source software. Specifically, there is no legal risk of using GPL licensed software in commercial products. But vendors have to comply with the license terms, just like they would have to with any other, even proprietary software license agreement.

For a copy of the Netfilter press release, visit:
http://www.netfilter.org/news/2004-04-15-sitecom-gpl.html
For additional information regarding the GNU General Public License, visit:
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html